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Hilldale

I have some big problems in my golf game. I’m probably not going to do anything about it besides recognizing it, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating. My frustration is mitigated because I figure that it’s a streaky game and I’ll just come out on the other side soon. That’s the way it’s been most of my life so I just roll with it.

It got really bad here on Hilldale, but I survived. This is a great course and as far as public courses go, it has the best greens in the Chicago region. They are the fastest public greens I’ve ever been on, period, and they roll smooth and true. It’s a fine Robert Trent Jones design with bent grass tees and fairways. You get all this, plus a cart, for only $64 on a Saturday morning. That’s a killer deal.

We almost always play the back tees because it measures only 6,417 yards, but it’s a stiff 72.0/138. It makes me think they haven’t messed much with this course since it’s been built, which is fine. It holds up well I think. There’s a good mix of short and long holes and great usage of a small ridge line that allows for a few challenging uphill approaches. In my mind, I don’t group Hilldale with the dozen (or so) most elite facilities in the region because of the dated clubhouse and the ugly homes crowding the course, but damn, I always leave this place in a state of wow.

I chipped in for a birdie on the first hole and it was all downhill from there. Well actually, I striped a drive on the very difficult, double dogleg, two lake, par five second, so the problems didn’t start until I dumped the next shot, a conservative six iron, into one of the lakes. $h!t.